:thumbsup: for sticky rice!

[mbeezie]

Joe,

What is best for MC are foods that do not cause an inflammatory response and this is an individual response, so not really determined by glycemic index. Generally speaking, white rice is very well tolerated by most people but not by all people. I have worked with a few individuals who could not tolerate rice, so it's not universal. In fact, rice intolerance (due to overuse most likely) is more prevalent in Asian countries. Brown rice is less well tolerated because of fiber content and also because lectins will be found in the outer layers. As I see it, any food that is well tolerated is the right food for MC - I don't think rice has anything special . . . but others can correct me if I am wrong.

Mary Beth

[tex]

Does a lower glycemic index equate to easier to digest? Lower GI usually is a measure of the effect a carbohydrate has on blood sugar. I guess the question here would be what is better for GI tract and MC

I never though eating rice could be so technical

Well, lets see. Amylose is generally considered to be less digestible than amylopectin. For one thing, it is mostly insoluble in water, which would tend to impede the digestive process, right off the bat. In fact, an accepted way to measure digestibility in the laboratory, is by using hydrolysis. Here's a study where the digestibility and glycemic index were measured for 6 different Philippine rice varieties, with differing amylose/amylopectin ratios:

Starch hydrolysis tended to be more rapid and more complete for waxy cultivars than for high amylose cultivars.

Waxy varieties, of course, have a higher amylopectin content, so that research result was pretty much of a no-brainer. (But note that it seems to contradict the relationship that you suggested).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... archtype=a

However, here is a report on a research project that has a lot more relevance to our situation, since it relates to enteral feeding, (as a treatment method):

In this project, rats were fed either commercial cornstarch, dextrose, modified soluble potato, (70–75% amylopectin), starch, or modified soluble amylomaize-7, (70% amylose), starch for 4 weeks. Note that the potato starch used had a conventional amylose/amylopectin ratio, (30% amylose/70% amylopectin), but the other starch used, (starch made from a special variety of corn - amylomaize-7), is sort of the opposite of starch made from waxy corn. Instead of a high percentage of amylopectin, it has more than twice the normal amount of amylose, (70% amylose/30% amylopectin).

The digestibility results of the four options were found to be:

Commercial cornstarch, dextrose, modified potato starch and modified amylomaize-7 starch were 100 ± 0, 100 ± 0, 69.0 ± 1.0 and 91.5 ± 0.8% digestible, respectively

IOW, the potato starch had only a 69% digestibility rating, while the amylomaze corn starch showed a 91.5% digestibility. Clearly, in this case, digestibility was much better with higher amylose content, (which seems counter-intuitive). Of course, the researchers were comparing potato starch with amylomaize corn starch, but presumably that is because there is no equivalent to amylomaize in the potato family, and they were out to prove suitability of these starches for enteral feeding possibilities. I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but I would assume that the glycemic index of the potato starch used in the project was probably significantly higher than the glycemic index of the amylomaize corn starch, (but, of course, that may not be a valid assumption, since it wasn't reported). But this example fits your suggestion that a food with a lower glycemic index correlates with easier digestibility. So evidently, there's more to it than meets the eye, (as usual).

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/127/7/1349.full

I agree with Mary Beth, though - none of that has much to do with treating this disease. Unless we have diabetes, we are better served to concentrate on foods that we can tolerate, and worry about glycemic indices later, after we are in remission. Of course, for someone with diabetes, they can't very well ignore the glycemic index of the foods they eat.

Tex

[Joefnh]

Thanks Mary Beth, Gabes, Tex & all for the information. I never knew there was so much to rice... I do find that the overcooked white rice really does help things settle down.

Another title for this thread might be

"Everything you ever wanted to know about rice but were afraid to ask"

-Joe

[Polly]

WOW, looks like my original question has led to a scientific treatise! That happens so often here, doesn't it? Thanks for all of your responses - I have learned lots, as usual.

Tex, I hereby designate and crown you "the king of grain knowledge"!

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Thanks, but when you work with something all your life, you can't help but learn a few things about it.

Love,
Tex

[Linda in BC]

I think it also helps being a very bright guy and an engineer... you gotta admit, Tex, you are not your "average farmer" LOL

And we are so glad you're not!

Linda

[tex]

Well, I think the fact of the matter is that none of us are average. Each and every one of us is unique in our own special ways, and we all have our own skills, knowledge, and powers of insight. Though we come from all walks of life, we seem to be able to think out of the box, and embrace the truth, so much more readily than most people.

For example, outside of this board, how many people do you know, who would be able to say, (with confidence), that their doctor was wrong, and they themselves truly know more about treating their own health issues, than their doctor? It's true that a lot of people in the general population ignore their doctors advice, (for various reasons), but not because they truly believe that they are better qualified to determine their own treatment.

And yet, as unusual as that characteristic is, in itself, what is really remarkable, is the fact that we know enough about certain health issues to be able to accurately judge when to follow our doctor's advice, and when to rely on our own knowledge. In academic terms, that puts us well up in the ranks of post-graduate performance, because we not only have a well-balanced background, but we have a specialized knowledge that relatively few, (extremely few), people in this world possess. We may not have a piece of sheepskin to hang on the wall, proclaiming our accomplishments, but we are truly experts on this disease, (and that includes most members who have participated here for any reasonable length of time).

So hey - it ain't just me. It's you, and dozens/hundreds of others here, who freely share their time, their experiences, their knowledge, their support, and most of all, their mutual trust, for the benefit of all. If that isn't a prime example of unconditional love, I'm a 's uncle. Unconditional love is a rather rare commodity in the rest of the world. And IMO, that is the one most important characteristic that distinguishes us from the rest of the world. It's what makes us so unique. We aren't necessarily that way when we first come here, but the nature of the disease, and the long, hard journey usually required to defeat it, somehow transforms us.

At least that's how I see it.

Love,
Tex

[Joefnh]

Tex that;s a great way of describing a lot of us here, but I have to agree with Polly and Linda, you stand head and shoulders above the group in your incredible depth and breadth of knowledge on this and man many other topics.

You would fit in well writing a book or on the lecture circuit

--Joe

[kbromby]

My family loves going for dim sum but I usually never eat for fear of unidentified ingredients. Yesterday I had glutinous rice in a lotus leaf. It has "meat" in it. I am currently experiencing a flare but I believe it actually settled my stomach. Not that I'm going to start making things in lotus leafs, but thought I would share.